Becoming a Winter Child
by Haely Potter
Summary: Both of them have changed when she hears of her sister conquering the Iron Throne but that is also the first day in a long time she goes to sleep thinking herself as Sansa Stark rather than Alayne Stone. Second in the Queen Arya 'verse


Alayne Stone used to have red hair, you know? Alayne Stone used to have a mother, a father, four brothers and a sister. Alayne Stone used to have a family. Alayne Stone used to have a direwolf. Alyane Stone used to have dreams. Alayne Stone used to have some importance.

Most of all Alayne Stone used to be Sansa of House Stark, older sister of Arya Underfoot.

Both of them have changed when she hears of her sister conquering the Iron Throne but that is also the first day in a long time she goes to sleep thinking herself as Sansa Stark rather than Alayne Stone.

Petyr Baelish has been dead for three years. She doesn't regret the linens she ruined, slitting his throat in his sleep. He had been poisoning her cousin, Sweetrobin, to hurry along his plans for Harry the heir to take Sweetrobin's place on the weirwood throne. Nowadays Sweetrobin was much better. He wasn't completely hale, his mother had seen to that, not weaning him when she was supposed to, and Petyr Baelish had built upon her groundwork, weakening Sweetrobin little by little, but he could now do what most boys his age could, even if he was more prone to getting colds than others were. Sansa was proud of him.

Harry the Heir had died a year later, leaving her the pregnant Lady Hardyng. Winter had come as her father had so often said and it wasn't gentle. The blizzards were deadly and the creatures that wandered there were straight from Old Nan's tales. No one knows which killed her husband.

Once the Vale was closed off and her husband dead, she told everyone she was Sansa Stark and washed the dye from her hair but she was still living the life of Alayne Stone. Sansa Stark's life had been gone. Her family had been gone, her home razed and her pet killed. And it had stayed that way, until news came from King's Landing of her sister's triumphant return.

Before Sansa had felt safe surrounded by snow, making it hard for news to come in and go out, harder for assassins to do their job, but now she could hardly wait for the men to clear enough snow from the Bloody Gate so that she could travel to King's Landing and swear fealty to her sister and her sister's son.

She knew before everything this happened, she would have resented Arya for becoming Queen, it had been her dream after all. All Arya had wanted to do was run around and play and fight. Now looking back, Arya had the better training to becoming Queen than Sansa ever could. After all, Arya was the one who fought for the throne and what had Sansa done? Sansa had thought herself in love with a golden haired monster, been a hostage, married an imp, been flown away by a man she thought she could trust only to have that trust shattered, married another man before her first husband was dead, killed the man who had taken her from King's Landing, lost her husband and birthed a daughter, Catelyn, all in the relative comfort of different keeps. Arya may have not had the finest stitches in the Seven Kingdoms but she knew how to protect herself and in the end, that had been more useful.

Lying in bed, Sansa wondered if Arya had loved her husband. Sansa hadn't loved hers. She had been… fond of Harry, she supposed, but even Joffrey had awoken more romantic feelings in her than him. Guiltily, she thought it was wrong of her to feel relieved that one of her husbands had died and wondered if the Gods had a warped sense of humor killing the one that had done nothing wrong, by her or anyone else.

Neither the Eyre nor the Gate of the Moon had a Godswood, which had been good when she had pretended to be Alayne Stone, since Alayne had been brought up by the Faith, but for Sansa it was hard. Even if she professed the Seven, she still felt the call of Godswood in her blood and knew that the second thing she would do upon her arrival to King's Landing, after swearing fealty to her sister, would be visiting the Godswood there. It wouldn't be anything like the Godswood back in Winterfell but it would help the longing in her before she and Arya would march North to reclaim Winterfell. Vale's Lords Declarant had already pledged their swords for her cause.

Her daughter's cries cut through her thoughts and she rises to see what's wrong with little Cat. Nothing seems to be out of order so Sansa supposes Cat had a nightmare and lifts the little girl to her arms, returning to bed. Cat has blue eyes and Sansa can't tell if they're hers or Harry's, but she has Harry's blond hair and Sansa's face. Sansa knows Harry had several bastards by the time they married and she hasn't seen any of them but she can't help wondering what they look like.

Until Cat falls asleep again Sansa whispers to her about her aunt Arya, Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, and of Winterfell and the North. She doesn't stop either when her audience is no longer conscious, whispering herself to sleep.


End file.
